Enjoying the fill of victory . . .

As the curious crowd counted down — "four, three, two, one!" — Joey Chestnut hovered over a plate of lukewarm Japanese gyoza dumplings. Flanked by a dozen other "gurgitators" in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo, he gritted his teeth and readied himself.

Months of voracious training — gorging on food and guzzling up to three gallons of water a day to keep his innards stretched — have turned the stocky 22-year-old San Jose State engineering student into a red-hot newcomer on the competitive-eating circuit. It's a regular feeding frenzy that's part circus sideshow, World Wrestling Entertainment farce and novelty endurance sport.

The 225-pound Chestnut has set world consumption records for deep-fried asparagus spears (6.25 pounds in 10 minutes), grilled cheese sandwiches (47 in 10 minutes), pork ribs (8.4 pounds in 12 minutes), waffles (18.5 half-pound waffles in 10 minutes) and horseshoe sandwiches, a concoction that includes ham, French fries and a cheesy sauce (6.3 pounds in 12 minutes).

Chestnut kept a wary eye on the petite 100-pound woman beside him. No average eater, this was Sonya "the Black Widow" Thomas. One of only a handful of female competitors, she is one of the most dominant eaters on the circuit.

The Korean-born Thomas, from Alexandria, Va., holds two dozen records — including 552 oysters in 10 minutes and 11 pounds of cheesecake in nine. Like a black widow spider, she says she wants to eliminate the men.

So far, Chestnut and Thomas have split a dozen showdowns. He recently overtook her for the No. 2 spot in the federation rankings, behind Takeru "the Tsunami" Kobayashi of Nagano, Japan. Power eating's greatest legend, Kobayashi holds the record for cow brains (17.7 pounds in 15 minutes) and once challenged a Kodiak bear to a two-minute eat-off. (He lost.)

So far, Chestnut has avoided the dreaded reversal of fortune, at least during a competition, which would result in disqualification. Even the best eaters aren't immune to the gag reflex. At the Coney Island contest, Chestnut said he saw bits of hot dog come out of Kobayashi's mouth and pointed out the potential violation to referees. He was overruled but didn't complain. "That's not the way I want to win," he said.

That day, Chestnut lost to Kobayashi by 1 1/2 hot dogs. He took it hard. "It's a July Fourth hot dog contest on Coney Island — how American is that?" he said. "You don't want to lose to anybody, but especially someone from another country."

Chestnut pledges to beat Kobayashi for power eating's No. 1 ranking. But the hot dog loss still lingers like heartburn.

(excerpts from an article by John M. Glionna